Subscribe To

Saturday, 30 April 2016

Climate
change denier, Jim Mora replaces Kim Hill to discuss the limits of
growth with an Australian academic who clearly still defends infinite
growth.

Vegetarianism
seems to be the answer (sic) as well as a bit of tinkering around the edges.

Corey
Bradshaw: Population Limits

Jim
Mora talks to the Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change in the
School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide, whose
research interests include population dynamics, extinction theory,
invasion biology, and climate change impacts and mitigation

Harold
Hensel continues to chronicle the disappearance of ice in the Arctic.

Someone,
at least is doing this work for the Greater Good.

Thank
you Harold!

Towards
the summer ice melt in the Arctic

This
view is on the right side of Greenland. The Ice is flowing into the
Greenland Sea. This is the same location for each consecutive image.
The purpose is to show the dynamics of the ice flow out of the Arctic
Ocean. We may be witnessing the prelude to a nearly ice free Arctic
Ocean this summer.

An
ice free Arctic Ocean is dangerous. The heat that will be absorbed
from the sun, along with heat arriving from the Gulf Stream and
rivers, may be enough to thaw out methane hydrates on the Artic Ocean
floor. It may also unplug cracks that are stopping geologic or mantel
methane from coming up.

This
event may turn out to be one of the most significant events in human
history. A lot depends on the weather in the Arctic this summer. Why
am I sharing this? Because we are all in this together and I want
other people to be aware of what is happening.

This is April 9th. The dates are on the lower left hand corner. It is helpful to focus on one iceberg and try to follow it before it disappears.

April 11th. April 10th was cloudy

April 12h

April 13th

April 14th

It looks like the big chunk on the left moved about 20 miles in one day.

South
Asia has been setting temperature records: A roasting heat wave has
been ripping through much of the region since early April. Hundreds
of people suffered severe heat strokes in Thailand, Malaysia and
Vietnam, while the death toll in India exceeded 300.

Scorching
temperatures have allowed at least three countries to set new
all-time national heat records with Thailand, which has kept records
since 1950, leading the way.

After
Sukhothai, Thailand set the first record of 111.7 degrees Fahrenheit
(44.3 degrees Celsius), on April 12, on Friday a remote, mountainous
province in northern Thailand, Mae Hong Son banked in a record in
with 112.3 degrees Fahrenheit (44.6 degrees Celcius), according to
Christopher Burt, a weather historian with wunderground.com. He added
that since April 19, more than 50 urban areas have recorded heat
records.

“As
of now we can say we’ve broken the record for the highest
temperatures over the longest duration in 65 years – and the season
isn't over yet,” said
Surapong Sarapa, head of the Thai Meteorological Department's weather
forecast division.

Starting
from March, the extreme heat has claimed the lives of as many as 21
people, Thai Department of Communicable Disease Control said
Thursday.

Thirteen of the victims succumbed to heat outside their
homes, two in vehicles, one in a temple, and five in houses.
Authorities called for the population to stay indoors and drink lots
of water to avoid heatstroke.

All-time
national heat records have also been seen in Cambodia and Laos. The
new all-time record high for Cambodia was set on April 15 at 108.7
degrees Fahrenheit (42.6 degrees Celcius) in Preah Vihea. Laos set
its own national all-time high temperature of 108.14 Fahrenheit (42.3
Celcius ) in Seno.

Malaysia,
Singapore, and Vietnam are also feeling the heat. But it seems that
India has been hit the worst, where hundreds of people have died.

At
least 300 people died of heat-related illness this month, AP
reported, as temperatures this month break the 111 Fahrenheit ( 44
degrees Celsius) mark.

India's
Centre for Holistic Development (CHD), a non-governmental
organization, is reporting that 244 unidentified bodies have been
found on the streets this month, mainly homeless, with up to 50
percent having died from the heat.

“Of
this, 80 per cent are of homeless people. Out of that figure, 40 to
50 per cent are heat-related deaths, which could have been prevented
had proper facilities been put in place. A homeless person is already
undermined by malnourishment, drug addiction, lack of access to
timely medical intervention, tuberculosis and other immunity
compromising diseases; dehydration and extreme exposure (to heat or
cold) then is a fatal blow,” CHD's
Sunil Kumar Aledia told the Hindu Times.

The
temperature has forced Indian officials in the eastern state of Bihar
to ban daytime cooking in some parts of the country to try to prevent
accidental fires, after a fire in the village killed 79 people.

The
heat wave is also causing severe drought in the much of India
effecting crops and livestock. groundwater reservoirs are at just 22
percent capacity in parts of the western states of Maharashtra and
Gujarat after rivers, lakes and dams have dried up.

India’s
meteorological department said Thursday that the heat wave would
continue over the weekend and might only get worse during May, which
is traditionally the hottest month in India.

Up
South: Kerala Declared As A Drought Hit State

Kerala
decided to approach the Centre to declare it 'drought hit' as
Malampuzha in Kerala's Palakaad district recorded the highest
temperature of 41.7 degrees Celsius in the state for the third
consecutive day. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy wrote to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in this regard and also asked the Centre to relax its
conditions and guidelines to declare the state as drought hit. A
high-level meeting convened by the Chief Minister had decided to ask
the Centre to declare the state drought hit early in the day. The
worst affected districts are Palakkad, Kollam, and Kasarkod.

India
Today Television marks the entry of the nation’s most credible name
in journalism - India Today into news television. Powered by a
future-ready look and backed with the 40 year legacy of the India
Today brand, the channel addresses the news consumption habits of an
evolved digital-savvy audience while staying true to the journalistic
principles of the India Today Group.

With
a paradigm shift in terms of television workflows and technology, the
channel sets a new benchmark with a differentiated look. Innovative
content formats and multiple news updates on the TV screen give
immediacy and choice to the news viewer

A
Russian fighter jet pulled an “unsafe” stunt within 25 feet of a
US surveillance plane Friday, Defense Department officials said.
Russian Admiral Vladimir Komoedov, however, denied any potential
harm, wondering why the US was there in the first place.

A
Russian Sukhoi Su-27 and a US Air Force RC-135 were in international
airspace when the former performed a barrel roll over the latter,
CNN reported citing
Pentagon officials. While initial reports held that the intercept
occurred within 100 feet, the US Defense Department updated that to
25 feet.

"This
unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause
serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved," Lt.
Col. Michelle Baldanza, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a
statement."More
importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot
have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between
countries."

Word
for word, that same part of the Pentagon’s statement has been used
recently under similar circumstances. Fifteen days prior to this
incident, April 14, another Su-27 fighter jet conducted a barrel roll
over another US reconnaissance plane, and between April 11 and 12,
the USS Donald Cook ship was flown over by Su-27 fighter jets, with
the Pentagon releasing footage.

“It
was neither a buzz, nor a simulated attack, thus everything is fine.
It was not a dangerous maneuver,” the
head of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee and former commander
of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Admiral Vladimir Komoedov told
Interfax, a non-governmental Russian news station. “Why
do they even fly here and provoke Russia? I mean, guys, let’s live
in peace, do not provoke Russia into actions you would then ventilate
in the press.”

After
the April 14 incident, US Secretary of State John Kerry said, "We
condemn this kind of behavior. It is reckless. It is provocative. It
is dangerous."

At
the time, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov
said, "The
reports of foreign media saying that a Russian Su-27 allegedly flew
in dangerously close proximity to a US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft
in the skies over the Baltic Sea on April 14 are not true."

Daniel
McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and
Prosperity, gave an American perspective different from the official
responses to the April 14 event.

"We
send naval warships, equipped with the latest equipment, 50 miles
from Russian territory in the Baltic Sea, conducting military
exercises. The Russians are annoyed and irritated, and we say 'Oh my
goodness, how aggressive, how dare you,'" McAdams told Radio
Sputnik’s Loud & Clea.

LONDON,
29 April, 2016 – Scientists in the US have identified the factors
that make a tree more likely to perish in a drought, after conducting
an exhaustive examination of 33 separate scientific studies of tree
mortality involving 475 species and 760,000 individual trees.

This
is not a surprising conclusion, but scientists don’t trust the
obvious: they like to check these things.

And
William Anderegg, assistant professor of biology at the University of
Utah, and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences on a list of 10 tree traits that could play a
role in survival or death by drought. These include simple
differences such as deciduous or evergreen, rooting depth, wood
density, leaf characteristics.

Adapt
and survive

Such
research matters. In 2002 in the southwestern US, 225 million trees
died where they stood because of drought. Texas alone lost 300
million trees in 2011. In California in the last year, 12 million
trees have perished.

With
losses on this scale, and more drought and heat extremes in store as
climates begin to change because fossil fuel combustion worldwide has
increased the levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, foresters and
conservationists need to know which species are most likely to adapt
and survive, and what these species have that others do not.

In
fact, deciding factors centre on the ability of a tree to draw water
through the piping in its tissues. The forest giants may have to pump
200 litres of water every hour at a speed of 50 metres an hour to the
topmost leaves, at a pressure of 30 atmospheres.

And
the process is at risk of interruption during drought by air bubbles.
To put it heartlessly, trees, like humans, can perish from embolism.

“It’s
a little bit akin to a tree heart attack,” Dr Anderegg says. “You
can actually hear this on a hot summer day if you stick a microphone
up a tree. You can hear little pings and pops as these pipes get
filled with air.”

Those
species already adapted to dry climates seem to be less at risk,
while those that normally flourish in wetlands are more vulnerable to
drought. So far, so obvious. But not all forest physiology is so
obvious.

Forest
cycle

Late
last year, Dr Anderegg and his fellow researchers established that it
was the increasing heat of the tropic night that was most likely to
change tropical forests into carbon sources, rather than carbon
sinks. What mattered was not global warming of itself, but how the
warming was distributed through the forest’s diurnal cycle.

And
since the world’s forests fulfil a vital role as carbon sinks –
sequestering 2.4 billion tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
every year, which is at least a quarter of all the carbon dioxide
emissions from factory chimneys, motor exhausts and other human
economic activity – what happens to forests as the world warms is
vital for humankind as well.

But
global warming is also increasing the risk of forest loss by drought
and wildfires.

One
month after we learned that the Brussels suicide bombers had planted
hidden camerasat
the home of the top Belgian nuclear official, we now learn
that in a disturbing continuation of this story, the
entire population of Belgium will be receiving iodine tablets, which
helps to limit the effects of radiation on the body, as fears
increase around the security of its nuclear power plants.

Iodine
pills, which can
help block radioactive
iodine from being absorbed by the thyroid gland, had previously only
been given to people living within 20km (14 miles) of the Tihange and
Doel nuclear plants, but Health Minister Maggie De Block said that
coverage was extended to 100km. The extended coverage area now
encompasses essentially the entire country of 11 million people. "We
will provide iodine pills in the whole country."

She
added: "It is not linked with the safety of our nuclear plants.
The recommendation came after Fukushima … because obviously after
Fukushima, we have more information regarding nuclear risks."

The
pills will be sent to pharmacies, and the public would be ordered to
collect their ration in the event of a meltdown, with children,
pregnant women, and those breast-feeding being given top priority.

In
response to the announcement, Belgian politician Jean-Marc Nollet
said "the government is finally accepting the recommendation of
the Health Ministry. Given
the population density and the risk of a nuclear disaster, this was
absolutely necessary."

The
plan to increase the coverage area comes just after Germany
had asked Belgium
to take two of their reactors offline until "open safety
questions are cleared up." Belgium's nuclear regulator AFCN said
that it was surprised by Germany's request, and added that the
nuclear reactors meet the most strictest of standards. According
to RT,
the two 33 year old reactors were taken offline in 2012 after defects
were found in the walls of the reactors' pressure vessels. AFCN
cleared their re-start in November, saying the cracks were hydrogen
flakes trapped in the walls of the reactor tank and had no impact on
safety.

As
we previously reported, following the investigation into the Brussels
bombings, it was discovered that
the bombers were planning attacks on Belgian nuclear power stations.
The brothers involved in the suicide bombing had planted a hidden
camera in front of the home of Belgium's nuclear research program
director.

Belgium's
Tihange nuclear plant as seen from a nearby cemetery

As
a reminder, just recently a nuclear power plant in Germany was
infected with
not one but several computer viruses, and while authorities tried to
quickly downplay any concerns, we can't help but wonder if Europe's
next "terrorist event" take place at a nuclear power plant.

In
its latest attempt to instill fear far away from the battlefield in
Syria, or the recently terrorism-plagued countries of France and
Belgium, last week Islamic State supporters published the names and
addresses of 3,600 New Yorkers in an apparent "hit list"
designed to escalate the group's campaign of sowing fear far from the
battlefield in Syria.

According
to the CSM the
names on the list were released last week by a group calling itself
United Cyber Caliphate on the encrypted chat application Telegram,
which IS supporters have used to recruit supporters and spread
propaganda. As Reuters
adds,
the group has urged followers of the militant group to target these
3,600 individuals and to
facilitate that the
hacker group has posted their personal information with the demand
that "we
want them #Dead."

The
list includes names, home addresses and email addresses. Some of the
information appears to be outdated, according to the source, who was
not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. It was not
immediately clear how IS supporters obtained the names and addresses
on the list.

The
list targets government employees with the State Department and
Homeland Security, according
to ABC,but
there are also many average residents on the list who are now being
informed by Federal officials that they have ended up on the ISIS hit
list. NBC
New York has gained access to
the data, and mapped the locations of New Yorkers on the list. Many
of the targeted were from Brooklyn, some from Manhattan, Staten
Island, Queens and other surrounding areas.

Locations
of ordinary New Yorkers targeted in ISIS-linked cyberattack

Federal
agents and New York City police officers have been contacting the
individuals on the list to inform them of the posting.

In
a statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said, "While
our standard practice is to decline comment on specific operational
and investigative matters, the FBI routinely notifies individuals and
organizations of information collected during the course of an
investigation that may be perceived as potentially threatening in
nature."

One
of the victims, an 88-year-old man named Art -- whose last name is
being withheld for privacy concerns -- spoke with NBC on Thursday,
telling of how the FBI visited and told him that his name was on the
list posted Sunday on the private channel of a pro-ISIS group called
the United Cyber Caliphate.

The
FBI told him to be cautious when he goes out in public and to call
911 immediately if he felt threatened. Still, Art said he is not
overly concerned for his safety.

"It
sounds like psychological warfare," he said. "Make 3,000
people in this city very upset." FBI and NYPD officials plan to
visit the homes of everyone targeted, but say there is no specific
threat of violence against them.

An
FBI spokeswoman said in a statement, "While our standard
practice is to decline comment on specific operational and
investigative matters, the FBI routinely notifies individuals and
organizations of information collected during the course of an
investigation that may be perceived as potentially threatening in
nature. "Potential threats may relate to individuals,
institutions, or organizations, and are shared in order to sensitize
potential victims to the observed threat, and to assist them in
taking proper steps to ensure their safety," said the
spokeswoman, Carol Cratty.

NBC
News terror analyst Laith Alkhouri recently released a report on
increasing efforts by pro-ISIS groups to undertake cyberattacks. Last
month, a pro-ISIS group hacked into the New Jersey Transit Police
website and posted the personal information of officers there.
Earlier this week, the same group released what they said was the
personal information of some State Department personnel.

According to
Alkhouri the information was posted to a channel accessible only to
certain ISIS supporters. It
was posted only for a short time, then taken down.
He said it is likely the pro-ISIS group posts this way because
releasing it more publicly would make them easier for law enforcement
to track. And the group knows the information will get out to the
public anyway, he said.

“What
those guys are really trying to do is gain a lot of notoriety by
saying we hacked American servers,” he told NBC's I-Team. That may
be true but things will change dramatically if one of the named
people is actually assaulted or killed.

Alkhouri
added that "these guys are trying to advance their capability,
they’re trying to advance their skill set, and they’re trying to
zoom in on more critical targets," he said. Ken Maxwell, who
once headed the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, says law enforcement
has to take these kinds of threats seriously, but residents should go
about their lives.

That’s
something Art says he plans to do. "I’m not going to change my
life, I’m not going to let this get me down," he said. "I’m
not going to even do what they’re saying be cautious in the street,
because it’s nonsense, it's nonsense."